1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data recording apparatus for a still camera capable of printing data onto still-camera film by the use of a liquid crystal display device or LED display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Still cameras have been known in the past which are provided with a data printing device for printing date data obtained by a time counting circuit and letter data input by key operation onto photosensitive film such as silver-salt film by the use of a liquid crystal display device, LED and like.
In order to record comment data onto still-camera film, the data recording apparatus requires a number of input keys which are used to input a comment. For example, twenty-six keys for letters A to Z must be provided on the apparatus to record letters A to Z. In an ordinary electronic appliance provided with letter keys, its key input section which includes keys each representing one of the alphabet letters requires a wide space on the appliance for installation of the key input section itself. Therefore, it has been proposed to use keys each representing two three letters of the alphabet so as to reduce the number of keys to be used in the appliance.
However, even though a letter key representing, for example, three letters of the alphabet is used, nine letter keys are required in total to input letter data. Accordingly, in order to input comment data with use of keys, a still camera needs a wide space for installation of the key input section. A drawback in the conventional still camera having the key input section exists in that it is hard to make the camera body small and compact in size.
Meanwhile, it has been proposed to record audio comment information without using letter keys or without using printing means. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,439,598, 3,691,312 and 4,270,854 still cameras which record spoken information on a magnetic tape are shown and described.
Installation of a magnetic tape recording apparatus on the still camera not only makes the still camera itself large in size but also can be a cause of mechanical troubles when an impact is externally applied thereto, since the magnetic tape recording apparatus includes fine mechanisms for transporting the magnetic tape and for moving the magnetic head.